Tag: Santana

May 18th, 2017. A sad day for music fans everywhere. Chris Cornell died and left this world, but lucky for us, he left a tremendous music legacy. For the first time, a collection has been released that is a wonderful retrospective view of his entire career.

The 4CD set (64 Tracks) takes you on a remarkable journey through the life of Chris Cornell starting with his early days of Soundgarden from as early as 1987 through to his work with Audioslave and his solo output with one brand new track that had never previously been released. There are also 10 unreleased live tracks with some outstanding performances from throughout his career.

Disc One:

The first CD is basically a greatest hits collection of Soundgarden tracks with the exception of two songs from Temple of the Dog and one solo track The collection spans the late 80’s and the 90’s.

When you hear the song title “Black Magic Woman”, most people immediately associate the song with Santana and that is because they have the most famous version of the song. However, their version is actually a cover version. I did not know that until a short time ago when I discovered that the original was performed by Fleetwood Mac two years earlier. My world was rocked as I had no idea. I don’t know if life will ever be the same.

The song was written by Peter Green who was the original singer for the Fleetwood Mac and he came from John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers where he originally replaced Eric Clapton on guitar. There is whole story around that and the formation of Fleetwood Mac which we will have to save for another time as this post is about comparing the two versions of “Black Magic Woman”.

FLEETWOOD MAC

The Fleetwood Mac version of “Black Magic Woman” was a real bluesy track, heavy on the drums and the bass with little guitar riffs thrown in. Then there is a great guitar solo that comes in about a minute into the song and goes on for about 45 seconds. It is really great and what would you expect from a guy that replaced Eric Clapton in another band.

Peter sounds great vocally as well and after listening to it, I realized I have heard the song many times before but probably thought it was the Santana song, of course it doesn’t have the same feel, but they aren’t completely different songs.

It is the last Friday of the month and it has been a slow month. And it is another Friday where there isn’t a ton of releases, but there are at least a few I am interested in and those are highlighted in Blue. If you like Rock, Pop, Metal, Country, Christian, Electronic and even old time rock & roll, there is a little for everyone.

Alice Cooper – Paranormal – (EarMusic): The Man, The Myth, The Legend, Alice Cooper is back with his 27th or so album. How many artists can say that?? I have seen and heard a lot of buzz about this one and I am actually excited to get this one. I can’t wait to hear what is in store with this one.

Seventh Day Slumber – Found – (VSR): The Christian rock band from Texas is here to bring us more of their post-grunge, hard rock. I haven’t heard anything of this one yet (haven’t watched the video either) so waiting to be surprised when the full album is out. I am generally not disappointed by anything they have released over the last 12 years.

If you don’t believe magic is real, you haven’t really listened to music. Music can instantly change your mood. It can even let you travel through time by taking you back to a special memory. Music can make you laugh, make you cry and make you feel so many different things. It can make you dance and soothe your soul.

If that is not magical, then I don’t know what is. In honor of all that, here are my favorite “magical” songs. Sadly, there are so many songs to choose from, I ended up with a list that only covered the ’60’s – ’80’s. I have to do another list for the ’90’s-’10’s.